Secular myth: “spirituality” and “religiosity” in advertising

Abstract

The object of research in this article is commercial advertising, which is analyzed not from the point of view of its technical execution, but from the point of view of its functions in the structure of modern communication. The purpose of the study is to analyze philosophical and theological understanding of the phenomenon of advertising, as well as to identify the legitimacy of some aspects of theological criticism of modern commercial advertising. The relevance of the study lies in the increasing influence of the means and methods of communication on the existential world of man. There is both an expansion of technical means of advertising, and ways in which advertising enters our daily lives. Advertising can be considered as a secular myth of modernity, which performs all the functions of a myth: it structures and organizes the world for the consumer of an advertising message, claims to solve all the existential problems of the consumer, forms a value and semantic world common to all consumers of information. It is emphasized that advertising actively uses mythological and religious narratives as recognizable plots of mass communication. Advertising claims to perform a quasi-­religious function, exploiting both the negative features of our perception and emotional reactions (fear, the desire to possess, vanity, pride etc.) and the positive ones (such as striving for excellence, responsibility, solidarity, a sense of justice etc.). The article presents a detailed theological criticism of advertising that developed in the second half of the 20th - early 21st centuries. It is concluded that if some theologians note the functional similarity between advertising and religion, then almost all critics of advertising as a secular myth are
unanimous in one thing: unlike religion, advertising is not interested in the final satisfaction of human needs, building a secular myth of endless desire,
satisfied here and now.